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Designed by Lei

With college back in session, many students are working part-time jobs on campus to help pay the bills. Waiting tables, running registers, maybe reshelving books at the university library. But one UVa student has followed a different path. WMRA’s Emily Richardson-Lorente went to meet her.

[KNOCKING]

I’ve been standing at this door knocking for a couple of minutes now. In a moment, I’ll find out that the 19-year old I’m here to visit has been playing her music too loud to hear me.

[OPENING DOOR]

LEILEI: Hi.

EMILY: Hi LeiLei, how are you?

LEILEI: Good.

In that way — and in many others — she’s a pretty typical 2nd-year college student.

[MONTAGE]

LEILEI: I like to go out with my friends

LEILEI: I woke up at, like, 10:30

LEILEI: I like to watch Netflix.

LEILEI: I don't know what I want to do when I graduate yet. I have no idea!

But in one important way, she’s unique.

LEILEI: I currently make jewelry.

LeiLei Secor doesn’t just MAKE jewelry. She SELLS jewelry — twelve thousand pieces so far. She’s at UVa now, but her story began in upstate New York a few years back. She was 16, and like high school kids all over the U.S., she was on the hunt for her first summer job. She applied at local shops, restaurants, the grocery store …

LEILEI: And I didn't hear back from any of them except I did get a rejection letter from the grocery store.

But rather than give up, LeiLei got CRAFTY. She figured if nobody’s going to hire me, I’ll make my own job. She’d been a fan of the Etsy website for years, and she enjoyed making friendship bracelets, so, you know, why not try selling those? But that didn’t really work.

LEILEI: I didn’t really get any responses.

So LeiLei did what many great entrepreneurs will eventually do. She pivoted. She taught herself to make something new from videos on YouTube.

LEILEI: Wire wrapped jewelry and rings.

Within a week of posting her first ring on Etsy, she had her first sale.

LEILEI: And I was like ohmigod this is so exciting.

That was almost 3 years ago, and LeiLei has been receiving a steady stream of orders ever since. This time of year, she receives 10 to 12 a day. But her sales spike during the holiday season … which, coincidentally, is right around finals.

LEILEI: I was actually up until 2 in the morning before my last final making jewelry, so it was really stressful.

For the most part, though, LeiLei says she enjoys the job. In addition to making the jewelry, LeiLei handles all of the product design, modeling, photography, website development, marketing, social media, customer relationships, shipping, finances … she does it all!

LEILEI: I have a pretty good system now, but I guess when I list out all of the things that I have to do, it sounds kind of overwhelming, but, um, it hasn’t been that bad.

Boundless energy is certainly one asset that a 19-year old brings to running a business. Another? Being comfortable with the constant attention that running a 24-hour online shop requires. In fact, every time LeiLei makes a sale, she receives notification through an Etsy app on her phone.

LEILEI: People are buying things at all hours of the night so, you know, I could be out with my friends and, “Oh, I made a sale!” So it’s really convenient.

EMILY: Does the Etsy app on your phone make a noise when you get an order?

LEILEI: I think the default noise is like a cha-ching sound but I turned that off cuz I don’t really want to be cha-chinging when I'm out in public, so I have it on silent.

Her phone may not be cha-chinging, but her bank account certainly is. Since LeiLei launched her Etsy shop 3 years ago, she’s earned - are you ready for this? - over a hundred thousand dollars. But lest you think she’s getting rich … almost all of the money she’s made has gone towards her college expenses, which for her as an out-of-state student at UVa, total about $56,000 a year.

LEILEI: Yeah. Wish I was in state but, you know. It's okay!

At the rate she’s going, LeiLei thinks she may be able to graduate debt-free from UVa. But when she does, she’s not sure WHAT she’ll do next. Maybe continue running her Etsy shop — it’s called “Designed by Lei” by the way — or take her chance at some other entrepreneurial adventure.

LEILEI: Being an entrepreneur is great because it’s like, you know, you get to put all your creativity and all your energy into something and I think it's something that's really rewarding.

Emily Richardson-Lorente was a freelance reporter for WMRA from 2015 - 2018.